How to translate a file online: AI vs human translation

Nowadays you can translate just about anything online—a document, an image, or even a whole eLearning course.

There are plenty of AI translation tools and human translators available to do this for you. However, the wide range of options can make deciding how best to go about file translation more challenging than you’d like.

In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of each approach so you can make an informed decision when looking for a document translator.

Automated translation is a popular solution if you need to quickly translate a document and you don’t have much time or many resources to get it done.

With AI powered translation, you can quickly extract text from a file, break it up into words and phrases, and replace it with a translation taken from various databases following specific rules.

As for tools that come with AI and machine translation capabilities, there are many types, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll divide them into three groups:

• Machine translation engine providers. These are large companies featuring their own machine translation technology. Google Translate is the best known example.

• Standalone CAT tools. These are smaller solutions that can incorporate machine translation technology but are limited in terms of editing or collaboration functionalities.

• Language AI platforms. These are powerful solutions with a range of integrated machine translation engines that come with comprehensive features like translation quality assurance, project management automation, and even integrated marketplaces.

Regardless of the tool itself, AI and machine translation may be efficient ways for you to translate files. Let’s look at the reasons for and against.

Steps:

1. Upload a file.

2. Select languages and AI translate.

3. Download the automatic translation.

Pitfalls to avoid

Limited functionality

Some tools don’t support many formats so you may have to convert your file before you’re able to upload it for translation. Limited editing functions within the tool are another disadvantage, as it means you have to keep editing texts manually after the translation process.

The answer is simple: pick a different tool. There are plenty of solutions out there that let you translate any file format, from a Word Document to a PDF, and ensure the formatting remains intact. Here’s a blog post comparing the most popular translation software tools.

Extra charges

Some tools charge per language or per user, which means scaling your team and expanding into other languages can end up being very expensive. Avoid this problem by choosing a tool that lets you add as many languages and collaborators as you like at no extra cost.

Freelance translator marketplaces like ProZ or Gengo give you access to thousands of individuals competing to take on your projects. Let’s take a closer look.

Steps:

1. Choose the marketplace that fits your needs.

2. Select the languages.

3. Browse the list of freelancers and filter based on your criteria (e.g. budget or location). You can also post a job and wait for freelancers to apply.

4. Hire the chosen freelancer and send your file.

5. Pay for the service upfront if required.

6. Monitor progress.

7. Review and approve the translation.

Pitfalls to avoid

Availability issues

If you need your file translated right there and then, there’s no guarantee you’ll find a suitable freelancer that can jump onto the task right away.

To be on the safe side regarding time frames and freelancer reliability, stick to platforms like Smartcat that collect freelancer performance data, like their workloads and average productivity rates.

Meeting deadlines

Despite having someone do the translation work for you, you still have to be the one who checks over everything to make sure the project is going as expected.

This is a quick and cost-effective way to translate with AI while ensuring you get high-quality results.

Steps:

1. Translate your file online using AI translation

2. Find a human professional reviewer and invite them to check your file.

3. Check and approve the final translation.

Pitfalls to avoid

Lack of collaboration options

Ideally, you should be able to automatically translate, hire, and have the review work done all in one place, to save you time, money, and streamline your workflow.

Smartcat AI makes it possible to do exactly that, offering a mix of AI translation and a marketplace of over 500,000 reviewers for projects of all sizes and budgets.

You can do all this:

Translate any file format using a translation engine that best fits your needs.

Invite your friends and colleagues to edit translations for free.

Find and hire reviewers without leaving the tool.

Inviting collaborators in Smartcat

Payment processing

If you hire a freelancer on a platform, that platform normally handles all the invoicing and payment processing. But what if you bring in external contractors to work on your translations?

Make sure you find a platform that will take care of that too. For example, with Smartcat you can pay all your service providers, whether internal or external, with one automatically generated invoice.

A good platform would take care of it too. For example, Smartcat allows you to pay all your internal and external service providers with one automatically generated invoice.

To recap, we've covered three practical ways of translating a file online. Just keep in mind that

• There’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

• Combining AI translation and human review will likely get you the best results: high-quality in a shorter time frame and at a lower price.

• All services have advantages and disadvantages, so evaluate your needs carefully and choose wisely to minimize any of the potential pitfalls.